The field of the invention is aquarium care products and the invention relates more particularly to magnetic aquarium cleaners utilizing a handle portion which has a magnet on the outer surface of the aquarium and a cleaner portion which also has a magnet which is attracted to the handle portion.
A magnetic aquarium cleaner is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,208,090. This cleaner has a motive or controller member 6 which moves a moving or follower member 5. The motive member is manipulated on the outside of the aquarium and the follower member rides along the inner surface of the aquarium wall. The follower is generally rectangular in shape and has two sponges along each edge. While such device is adequate for old style aquariums of the type having flat glass walls, such flat pads are not capable of cleaning the curved inner surface of modern aquariums made of plexiglass.
Window cleaners have been used which also utilize magnets and one such window cleaner is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,507,559. The magnets used are cylindrical and wrapped in a rectangular pouch 15.
Another magnetic window cleaning device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,634,444. In this case, a rectangular magnet is used and the magnet is wrapped with a cleaning material.
A magnetic stirring apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,518,758. The stirrer is rotated by a rotating magnet held below the base of the flask.
The problem that exists is two fold. The inner curved corners are very difficult to clean without putting one's hand and arm inside the fish tank. Because of the potential for transferring germs to or from the aquarium water, this is not desirable. If all the algae is not removed, it quickly forms a nucleus for new hard algae growth. Also, many fish tanks have a canopy which extends over the outer top edge of the tank. The classic magnetic cleaners follow the exterior handle and thus, are not able to reach beyond the overhang of the canopy. Since this leaves a layer of algae, it again forms a nucleus for further algae growth.